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Judgment day arrives for Sen. Larry Craig

09/24/07 08:08 PMUpdated 04/07/14 02:38 PM

“Hardball” host Chris Matthews gives his take on the day’s top political headlines.

Sen. Larry Craig’s judgment dayLarry Craig is facing Judgment Day. Politically, that is. He’s going before a judge in Minnesota who will decide whether to let him withdraw his guilty plea for “disorderly conduct.” Late today, the prosecutor in the Craig case filed a memo to the court in which he wrote, “Denial of the Defendant’s motion prevents further politicking and game playing on the part of the Defendant in relation to his plea.”

If he gets his way, he’s got a chance to withdraw his promise to resign from the senate. If that happens, look out! The Republicans, especially Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell, want this guy out of sight, out of mind. You can bet they want it forgotten by the time they hold their convention in Minneapolis-St.Paul next September. It will be downright fascinating to watch how this plays out.

Ford for governor?Speaking of fascinating, Harold Ford, Junior, who lost a hard-fought race for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee last November is apparently thinking about running for governor. A close advisor of Ford’s is meeting with Democrats in the state about a Ford run in 2010. Given his graceful concession after a tough election campaign, voters might just give him a chance.

Bayh-ing into HillaryIn other news, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. I’ve been thinking that Bayh has a good shot at being Hillary’s pick for Vice President because of the following: He’s from the Midwest, which could be the battleground next November and he voted for the war resolution that led to the Iraq war. Bayh would not be to Hillary’s left on the whole war issue. In fact, he would be to her right, which would help her hold the political center. And finally, he would not outshine her. He is a moderate, soft-spoken politician successful at winning in the most pro-Republican state in the Midwest.

Rudy’s phone-y interruptionAt the NRA presidential event last week, Rudy Giuliani received this phone call while he was speaking at the podium. Now you might chalk that up to an oversight. You might think that he simply, in the rush of things, forgot he’d left his cell phone on during an important speech. Well, unfortunately, it’s not the first time he’s let this happen. In June he interrupted a speech to 200 people to take another call from his darling.

Call me old-fashioned but when you invite people to go to the trouble to come to an event and listen to what you have to say, you give them your first attention, you don’t operate a switchboard of anyone who feels like interrupting. If this thing happens again, and people aren’t openly offended by it, that’s their fault. Cute once, maybe. Not cute twice. Not cool if it happens again.